Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to make an appearance/speech before Congress on Tuesday.

There are many who see Netanyahu’s appearance as a bit of an affront to the president and his administration, because the prime minister is more or less the guest of House Speaker John Boehner and not the president or any of his protocol lackeys.

Depending on what the prime minister says, the political impact of this journey promises to be overblown, which seems to be the case with many things these days.

Competition is defined as “the act or process of trying to get or win something (such as a prize or a higher level of success) that someone else is also trying to get or win,” according to www.merriam-webster.com.

When it comes to city government, there is no such thing as too much competition — or too high a level of success.

Today is the deadline (5 p.m. today, to be exact) to file for Amarillo City Council. And as is the case every odd-numbered year, all five spots on the council, including the position of mayor, are up for grabs.

Be at the corner of Soncy Road and Westgate Parkway in Amarillo at 3 p.m Saturday.

The law will be on public display; the need to change the law is also apparent — albeit not as visible.

On Saturday, Open Carry Texas, a gun rights organization, is scheduled to hold its first open carry walk in Amarillo. This means OCT members will be exercising their constitutional right to bear arms. However, in the case of Texas, this right is limited as far as carrying firearms openly in public.

Old Man Winter socked the Golden Spread on Sunday and Monday, and if the weather forecast for the rest of the week is any indication (no offense to our sometimes maligned weather forecasters), the snow and bitter cold is going to hang around for a good chunk of the week.

We like to check the Texas Drought Report by the Texas Water Development Board periodically, because is there really an issue more vital to the Texas Panhandle than water? We think not.

Here’s some good news from the aforementioned report for the week of Feb. 16: Only a small part of the corners of four Panhandle-area counties were in the “exceptional” drought category, the worst category as far as drought conditions — Moore, Hutchinson, Potter and Carson counties.

If the president isn’t harkening back to ancient history by trying to compare 21st century terrorists (individuals who happen to be alive) to individuals responsible for the Crusades (individuals that are long deceased), then he is hoping to combat the brutality of those who behead people and burn people alive in cages by providing them good jobs and listening to their “legitimate grievances.”